The house is eerily quiet during the daytimes now. Not So Little Miss is now back at school, a school radically altered in routine thanks to the current pandemic, but also thanks in no small part to a huge operational challenge placed squarely on the school's shoulders by an incompetent government and the way they're 'handling' the COVID-19 crisis. But this isn't a political blog, thankfully so I won't dwell on Bojo and his f*cknugget cabinet.
Not So Little Miss actually couldn't wait to return to school. Since March, social interaction had been limited to virtual chats, movie nights over Zoom, online sessions of Animal Crossing with her friends - but very little in the way of (socially distanced) meet-ups. For the first time since she started school I think this was genuinely the first September where the usual "Back to School" anxiety for her was replaced with the excitement of seeing friends again. That's a huge positive and possibly the only reason why we were 'happy' with her going back at all.
It still feels like kids are being put into situations that could affect their health and the health of others, and that we're playing a waiting game. With current infection numbers rising, particularly amongst the young, I still can't shake the feeling that this is all about herd immunity for a disease that clearly does not follow the pattern of other respiratory diseases, judging by the real science coming out of research into COVID and some of the downright weird things it can do to people, seemingly following no known patterns of infection, symptomatic response or cure (from the sad news from the vaccine front that some patients have reacted adversely to the current trialed vaccine).
Back to the school thing and so far it feels like it's going OK. We've adopted a routine in the afternoons once she gets home of bagging up her clothes for washing, getting her into the shower (blimey, who knew it would take a pandemic to get a teen to take daily showers!) and then on with homework before she settles into a bit of downtime.
Not So Little Miss has also even found a new love for school subjects she previously hadn't been enjoying. An enthusiastic Physics teacher has reinvigorated her love of science, after a couple of years of having teachers who seemingly had no love for teaching, the kids or their subjects.
We couldn't be more pleased about this if we tried, as she's also getting back into space stuff in a big way which is great news for my wife and I, obsessed with everything space-related as we are.
But the social stuff is the most important. Reforming those bonds for a kid who is naturally shy and introverted made me realise that, as great as all the virtual learning and distanced 'contact' was, there's no substitute for the stuff that goes on socially when a kid is happy in school and has some good friends to go through this current horrific situation with. It's one thing being able to talk to your parents about this stuff but quite something else to be able to once again talk to your peers about it all.
I still worry (this is the Anxious Clown blog, just in case you hadn't noticed) that a return to school, an eventual return for my wife and I to the office, close contact and all that b*llocks about bubbles and routines is a strategy that's doomed to failure and will only lead to an even greater rise in cases of COVID. I think it's unfair to lump all this on the shoulders of the young who thrive on social interaction, online and offline. Even the quiet kids.
Though kids give me hope. Hope that one day the likes of Bojo, Trump and all the other twerps seemingly dead set on the ruination of the world will be consigned to brief chapters in the history books and the kids will use their voices, their brainpower and (hopefully) their votes to affect a change in the world because at the moment adults are doing a really sh*tty job of it. Who else can we look to?
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